Featured album – Everything is Beautiful – Pray for Sound – (post-rock)

This is a reblog of a post I did last year. This is my son Nick’s band and I’m doing this because Pray for Sound have been invited to play at the dunk! festival in Zottegem, Belgium. I’ve been to Belgium quite a few times. Beautiful country.

Billed as Europe’s finest post-rock festival, it takes place on the weekend of May 25th. They’ll also be playing the very first dunk!festival right here in New England (Burlington, VT) later this year.

While in Europe, the guys are also going on a brief tour including France, Netherlands, and Germany. You can check out their show listing here. If you can make any of these shows, be sure to say hi. Nick is the good-looking one.

If you’re not particularly familiar with it, post-rock is long-form instrumental music. To these ears, much of it sounds like Pink Floyd minus the vocals. Well, not exactly Floyd but that should give you some idea.

In a review of their previous album, Dreamer, the reviewer said it “[combines] serene ambiance with more hook-oriented riffs.” Yes. It’s that combination that makes it work.

Post-rock is, for whatever reason, very popular in Europe. The guys came pretty close this past year to playing in Belgium at a festival featuring post-rock, post metal, sludge and ambient music. But as these things go, the stars weren’t aligned. Maybe next time.

The album has been out since September 23rd and you can get a taste of it below and stream the album here:

I’ve listened to the album a couple of times and if you like this genre, I think you’ll dig the whole thing.

I always really liked Pray for Sound’s music. I play their music a lot when I am doing mundane, necessary work. Their music always puts me in another time and place that makes me feel like I am in a magical state of being and not in a limited, mindless place. If that makes sense. Really like what I hear on their single “Everywhere, Everywhere”. Looking forward to hearing the whole album when it is released. Congrats to Nick and fellow artists!

Yep. At the risk of sounding like PFS’s sales guy, their CD is out in about 10 days. Nick tells me that the pre-orders have been phenomenal. I didn’t even know they had that big of a following! I’m out of touch. That’s because I sit around listening to records from the 1930’s on my gramophone. 😂

Yeah it’s gotten some good reviews, mostly on blogs or alternative press. They just played locally the other night. Post-rock has a whole rabid fan base (mostly, I think, European) who just love the stuff.

Quality stuff. Has a “Soundtrack” feel. Half way through ‘They Gave Up Looking’ they explode . I really dig it. Love changes in pieces of music. Certainly sets a certain mood. I like the builds and the big sound. CB always likes a hard edge and this has plenty of that. Didn’t they call this jamming back in our day? This is real good Jim, pass that onto the Nick and the band members.

Yeah thanks, I’ll do that. Interestingly, they’re pretty well-known in certain circles thanks to the Internet. They actually got invited – and are going to – a festival in Belgium in late May. And as part of that, they’re going to tour with another band to a couple of European cities. Not bad for a part-time band, eh?

What a cool way to visit Europe, playing in a rock band. Nick will have great memories. My son is named Nick, too, and he played drums in a band in Florida for a while (now he’s in Denver and trying to learn bass!).

This music reminds me of a neo-prog rock band called Porcupine Tree: a little dreamy, a little heavy. Never heard the term “post-rock” before.

Yeah I don’t know who came up with the term “post-rock.” Pretty generic but that’s what they call it. As mentioned, wildly popular in Europe. The organizers really like the guys and so, keep inviting them. And yeah, grear way to see the world and of course, more importantly, sample its beers.

Pretty cool, Jim. As a musician, you must be very proud of Nick! Is he a guitarist as well?😀

It seems like you, I’m mostly into “old stuff” and had not heard of “post-rock” before. I guess the closest somewhat similar genres was aware of are ambient and new age. In any case, who cares what they call it – what ultimately matters is whether you like it or not.

My first impression is I find it pretty relaxing. It’s the perfect type of music to fall asleep, and I don’t mean this in a bad way at all. In fact, I used it for exactly that purpose last night, and it worked beautifully!😀

I’m actually not surprised this type of music is popular in Europe. In fact, I bet your son’s band might find a receptive audience in Germany. Music like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze still have fan audiences there. I’m not saying Pray for Sound sounds like these artists, though based on my first impression, there appear to be some similarities.

Yes, I am and yes he is. (A guitarist). He told me a few years back that seeing me play was not so much inspirational as that it made him realize that it was within his reach to do. I had several guitars around and so, he went for it. He’s been playing now for about 9 or 10 years. He plays some really good stuff and it is quite different than anything I would play. I am a blues and rock and (somewhat) jazz guy. If I couldn’t improvise, I wouldn’t play. Those don’t mean much to him. He likes composed music and sound palettes. Consequently, kinda hard for us to jam.

I don’t think he’d all be put out by your “music to sleep by” analogy. One guy said it sounded like soundtrack music to him and he very much liked that. So I like his stuff and some other post-rock I’ve heard. But I couldn’t listen to a steady diet of it. But the festival guys love their stuff and keep inviting them to everything. My bands, by contrast, could hardly get to the next state over. 😀

Great sounding music. I am into the third song right now. You must be really proud. Maybe this generation couldn’t imagine liking our (old rock) music so they invented the term “post-rock” so it sounds new and exciting?